


Stumbling down and down

by RahDamon



Series: ML Fandom Week 2016 [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 18:16:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7768207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RahDamon/pseuds/RahDamon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette couldn't have kept her secret forever, especially not from her family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stumbling down and down

In the beginning Marinette had been certain that she’d be able to keep her secret. It wasn’t like she’d start shouting from the rooftops that she was Ladybug and Tikki had informed her about the magic cloak hiding her physical attributes such as age and coloration. A piece of cake, that was what she had thought it’d be.

  


Three years down the road and Marinette wondered about how much longer she’d be able to hold out and keep her secret.

  


It wasn’t that she was any more likely to spill her secret than three years ago. If it went her way Marinette would never reveal that she was Ladybug. That way she’d be able to live normally once Ladybug ‘retired’. ( Provided that she didn’t die fighting the hordes of akuma and that she’d be able to live after Ladybug, of course, but she was trying to be optimistic.)

  


However, she thought, hissing as her mother gently cleaned the huge gash that tore down her chest, it was hard to keep being a Superhero secret when your Lucky Charm healed everyone but yourself. And it was doubly hard to deny being a Superhero when she had tumbled down her balcony and into her room half-blind from pain and detransformed directly in front of her parents.

  


Marinette didn’t even know why they had been in her room at 1am and since she had collapsed to the ground in a bloody heap they hadn’t talked to her beyond orders to lift her arms or head. Her mother had taken her to the bathroom Tikki tottering behind.

  


To be honest, Marinette was surprised that her mother had thrown her kwami only an inscrutable glance before working to get her shirt off. Although her hands were gentle, her expression was carefully blank. Marinette wasn’t used to her mother closing down on her like that; she was more used to her mother’s open and friendly smile that welcomed anyone. And always ready to give a kind word, not silent as she was now.

  


“Sabine,” her father said appearing at the door but not stepping into the bathroom. Wordlessly he handed her a few rolls of bandages and her mother turned back to Marinette. Gulping and trembling she lifted her arms so her mother could wrap the bandages around her torso. Whenever her mother pressed on her wound Marinette hissed and flinched, her father being a dark and silent figure behind her mother.

  


“All finished,” her mother finally said tone soft but clinical. “Come, Marinette, let’s talk about this in the living room.”

  


Standing up her mother’s fingers circled Marinette’s wrist and tugged. Marinette felt herself follow like her mother was the Puppeteer and in possession of the Ladybug doll. Not even Tikki pressing against her throat and whispering “All will be okay and work out” dispelled the sense of doom spreading into every crook and cranny inside of her.

  


The journey to their living room, just one floor down, was over in a flash and at the same stretched for eternities. And as she was led to their couch, the couch started to look remarkably like the gallows.

  


Her parents didn’t start interrogating her immediately. Marinette would have preferred it over the silent stewing and disappointed glares. It was more her father who glowered at her with crossed arms and moustache quivering. Which meant that once he began speaking he wouldn’t stop until he was finished.

  


Licking her lips Marinette took a deep breath. “I won’t stop being Ladybug.” She sounded more determined than she felt.

  


“Damn well, you will, young Lady!” You’d think her father would explode getting louder. He didn’t he just got quieter until he was almost hissing. ( A distant part of her mind giggled over his pun; she swiftly suppressed the Chat-part of her brain.) “I won’t have a child of mine gallivanting into dan-”

  


“Tom.” Her mother’s voice sliced through the air, sharp and swift and completely controlled. “Let her talk and tell us why she insists on being a superhero.”

  


Marinette flinched as her mother’s tone implied that she wouldn’t stop being Ladybug for the sake of glory. But this was her chance and an encouraging pat from Tikki surged her forward. So she talked. She talked about how she was the only one who could protect Paris together with Chat. About how no one else could cleanse the akuma. About how she wanted to protect her friends and family and the way she associated Ladybug with power and protection. About how she had been chosen despite being unsuited and yet couldn’t give up.

  


By the end of her tirade Marinette felt wrung out and empty but also relieved. All these thoughts had plagued her for months as had the secrets. Slumping down back into the couch and folding her hands she closed her mouth waiting for the verdict.

  


“And,” her mother begun still controlled but with wet eyes, “why didn’t you think to come to us? Didn’t we have the right to know our daughter puts herself in danger every day?”

  


The ‘I wasn’t allowed to tell you’ died in her throat at her mother’s piercing glare. Instead the honest answer slipped out. “I was afraid you’d forbid me from being Ladybug or that I was supposed to be her 24/7.”

  


Suddenly she was engulfed by strong arms that squeezed her too tightly. Marinette gasped in pain as her mother yelled at her father _to ease up, their daughter is injured, oh dear god_. Giggling in her ear was Tikki. The grip around her loosened and another set of arms wrapped around her lightly. “You silly girl, while we don’t like it -” “You being in danger,” her father added gruffly, “- we’ll always support you.”

  


Marinette let go crying in her family’s arms.


End file.
